About

Sweettenorbull is a blog about poems: topical poems, seasonal poems or just personal favourites of mine. The title is from the opening lines of Basil Bunting’s great long poem Briggflatts:

Brag, sweet tenor bull,

descant on Rawthey’s madrigal

Poetry is, I believe, something to be enjoyed and appreciated. Of course that sometimes involves a little analysis and explanation, but readers should remember these are means and not ends in themselves. I hope that my commentary helps illuminate and entertain in turn. Comments are always welcome!

Note

This site respects copyright – this is how poets and publishers make a living after all. Most recent entries are on older poems no longer in copyright. In older entries referring to copyrighted poems, only short extracts are given, although the commentary assumes that the reader has access to a copy of the text.

9 responses to “About”

Thanks, ‘Experienced Tutors’. I hope you enjoy it. You might also be interested in my other blog, ‘Andy’s Writing Tips, which dispenses advice on good writing, in particular for GCSE pupils. (What with your day job and all!)

Nice to see someone in Korea writing about Hopkins, Pound, et al. I even saw a tantalizing reference to Vallejo (gotta love those Eshleman translations!). Do you plan to write on any contemporary poetry? Lisa Robertson? J.H. Prynne, perhaps?

Well thanks for dropping by, Colin. I can always enjoy a bit of Hopkins,
while Pound is a more occasional pleasure… As for Vallejo, I own a copy of the Eshleman translations and I like his brave attempts to capture Vallejo’s wordplays in English. I also really like the Sayers Peden translations too, in Penguin, which are a little more accessible.

I must admit I have less contemporary poetry in my collection, and I almost never blog on it for copyright reasons. I do sometimes read it though. I like Lisa Robertson, what poetry I have seen of hers, though I am not familiar with Prynne. I have considered a blog post or two on Geoffrey Hill, if you consider him contemporary (well, he’s still alive!)

Hi, I am introduced to you by John Stevens. I am the editor of the WAGON Magazine. My name is Krishna Prasad. I am from Chennai, India. John has written a book review for The Wagon and now from the current issue he has started writing a column. He wrote to me about you and recommended your writings. I did go through a few of them. My mail id is: thewagonmagazine@gmail.com. Though it is a print journal, it also has a digital platform where you can find all the previous issues but for the current one. Looking forward to a mail from you, Thanks Link: http://thewagonmagazine.com/